Movie review: ‘Jojo Rabbit’ suggests that war is bad, racism is inexcusable, and Hitler was a buffoon

Ed Symkus More Content Now

Thursday

Oct 10, 2019 at 10:39 AM

If you’re a fan of the inventive, engaging, hard-hitting 2004 novel “Caging Skies” by Christine Leunens, there’s a 50/50 chance that you’re either going to adore or be distraught by what writer-director-actor Taika Waititi has done in the process of adapting it for the screen.

I more than adored the film; it’s on my short list of those I want to see again, and soon. But having read the book after the fact, it’s perfectly understandable that there will be some folks who wish that Waititi never laid his hands on it, that’s he’s committed heresy. To those people, I’d say, “OK, you didn’t get it. Time to move on to something else.” To those who are comfortable with separating a film from its source material (and have a healthy sense of dark humor), I’d say, “Try this, you might really like it.”

Set in a town in war-torn Germany in the mid-1940s, there’s an immediate clue that something’s offbeat about this endeavor. Within moments of being introduced to the protagonist, 10-year-old Jojo (newcomer Roman Griffin Davis), it’s made clear that he’s a Nazi sympathizer, and that he’s ready to “give up my life for Hitler.” If that’s a bit off-putting, wait till another moment goes by, and it’s revealed that the lad is actually being coached by the man, the devil, the vile creature himself, Hitler (Waititi). Well, not really. This Hitler is the lonely boy’s imaginary friend. Will you cringe? I did. But before I knew what hit me, I was laughing, with gusto, because in a flash, Waititi - the writer-director side of him - matches up the impressionable and exuberant boy with a buffoonish Hitler, and the actor side of him pushes the mustachioed bad guy so far over the top, there’s nothing to do but laugh at him. I did. And once you get an inkling of what this movie is going to be, as the opening credits roll, and the rollicking sound of the Beatles singing “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand” (their German version of “I Want to Hold Your Hand”) comes blaring out of the speakers, you’ll know whether to demand your money back or enjoy the ride.

The film really only focuses on the first part of the Leunens book, which is an ambitious, multi-year tale of Jojo and his single mom (Scarlett Johansson), along with a “guest” - a Jewish guest - in their home (Thomasin McKenzie, as entrancing here as she was in “Leave No Trace”), during the final days of WWII, when anti-Semitism was running rampant and most Germans knew their side was losing.

But instead of taking matters seriously, Waititi (who also directed and acted in “Thor: Ragnarok” and “What We Do in the Shadows”), infuses the film with boisterous humor, taking tiny slices of the book, then expanding them into set pieces and having them played for outrageous laughs, giving juicy parts to, among others, Sam Rockwell, Stephen Merchant and Rebel Wilson. The most fascinating difference between book and film is that in the book, there’s no character of Hitler, goofy or otherwise, but in the film, he has some of the best lines - and prancing moves.

Yet the biggest success of the film is that somehow, through all of its craziness, it maintains the fundamental messages at the heart of the book - that war is wrong and that Fascism and racism and hate cannot be tolerated. And even though Hitler keeps popping up, peppering the boy - the only person who can see him - with Nazi nonsense, it turns out to be a study of how a sensitive and gullible person can eventually, aided by the right company, open his eyes to what’s really going on around him.

In getting to that point, the script reaches right back to the book for some genuinely sobering and sob-inducing moments and makes impeccable use of them. What a strange mix of moods on display here. If that wasn’t enough, Waititi borrows from his Beatles beginning, and ends it with David Bowie singing “Helden” (his German version of “Heroes”). If it was his purpose to get us thinking about serious subjects by making us laugh, the film is a total success.

Ed Symkus writes about movies for More Content Now. He can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com.